Created by Underworld godling Kwanju prior to his manifestation to announce his advent to the world and ultimately remake it in his image

Small clutches of Qual eggs fall involuntarily from Kwanju's gleeful/terrible eyes like tears whenever the godling chooses to become temporarily inert for a fortnight

Uses precision plasma beam to cut stone for construction, sculpt statues and bas relief depicting the glory of Kwanju (and other related subjects) with uncanny mastery, also able to blast enemies to tiny bits as needed

Sustained by internal power plant fueled by depleted Chaos in a demi-material matrix, born with enough to last hundreds of years, no feeding or housebreaking required!

If found in egg form (double-size ostrich egg), sheltered from the elements, transported away from Kwanju's sphere of influence, will upon hatching form instant master-servant bond with the first sentient mind it encounters and immediately begin proselytizing on master's behalf

Sent forth by super-potent Outer Entities to psychically record and transmit reports on events throughout the multiverse deemed important or interesting for unknowable reasons

Able to travel through the mind-bending, psychedelic transplanar inter-void from reality to reality once per day

Once daily, may become invisible or assume form of inanimate objects (as polymorph) to permit long-term clandestine observation (i.e. that decorative sarcophagus in the evil monarch's war room), destroys object in question with disintegration ray, position revealed by detect magic/similar spells and/or innate abilities

May project concentrated psychic noise at single target w/in 120' at will, instantly rendering all but the hardiest subjects mentally negligible for 10 minutes, repeated psychic attacks will eventually reduce the target's brain to inert hash

If friendly communication can be established, transplanar observers sufficiently bored with their surveillance missions may provide information on events witnessed in the immediate area, done for their own amusement, but only after checking in with dark masters via trans-cosmic telepathy for permission (granted 80% of the time, 20% chance of orders to destroy the adventurers)

Treasure: A series of semi-solid ducts deep in the creature's demi-material trunk contain a vapor that, if inhaled, grant the ability to travel to another reality (one way only). These must be harvested and utilized immediately before the creature's corpse dissolves into a reeking mist.

Disposition: Fearless, steady under fire, but occasionally freak out and join battles-in-progress despite orders to the contrary

Violence: Can readily swallow 1-4 human size creatures whole at a go, could batter most foes senseless with facial-tentacles but why bother when you can just rear up then come down on enemies like a colossal heap of bricks

Enemies: Those of their master, Underworld godling Shaggath Ka

Aims: Deliver and extract worm troopers as ordered by their master or his priesthood

Peculiarities:

Created at the behest of Shaggath Ka by his enslaved drone-brides, who perish in the process of generating a single clutch of massive carrier worm eggs (1-6 per clutch)

Stores up to 36 encysted worm troopers or other roughly human-size forces in massive transport gizzard

Supplemental gizzards used to haul heavy siege equipment or other military cargoes

Tunnel through earth and rock at respectable rate of 10 mph

Flawless Underworld navigation via psio-location, send out constant waves of psionic impulses, perceive 3-D image of surroundings to a distance of several miles

Spell-casting disrupted within 60 feet of carrier worm as side-effect of psionic emissions

Explode into caverns and chambers, regurgitate troops, resume tunneling as per orders, stand by to extract troops

Will only wholly emerge from tunnels at direst emergency or if berserk (see below)

Rarely, carrier worms succumb to their mostly suppressed battle urges and go on rampages of violent mayhem, always directed at known enemies but sometimes inadvertently screwing up carefully planned operations, an offense for which they face eternal damnation and exile

When not on active duty spend every available moment in active praise and worship of their deity, lurking outside of his unholy Dome of Contemplation like faithful but slightly irritating attention-seeking hounds, they just want to get as close as possible to their cherished Worm Sultan

Treasure: Frequently carry implements of war in their supplemental gizzards, occasionally loaded with loot from conquests

Communication: Only remembers a handful of magical languages, rarely intoned outside of spell casting, speaks like an even-more-depressed Neil from The Young Ones

Disposition: Extremely morose

Violence: Spells, powerful constricting embrace

Enemies: Doesn't remember

Aims: Formerly ambitious, now a chaotic wanderer lacking any sense of purpose

Peculiarities:

Once a powerful adventuring sorcerer whose pursuit of a more resilient form landed him in a grossly mutated housing of rubbery, heavily muscled appendages

Mind and will shattered, amnesia almost total but for the list of spells memorized at the time of his life-changing experimental transformation, each of which return to his mind daily without effort

Inclined to avoid unnecessary conflict, but if attacked will unleash eldritch hell

Sleeps hanging by his tentacles among the stalactites, steals/forages for food of the finest quality available, solves problems with limited list of incantations, sometimes hurling a fireball when a mere charm person would do

Will request and, if indulged, promptly guzzle any and all booze or wine available for consumption

Booze and wine will loosen his tongue as regards any nearby treasures and/or dangers he has spotted in his meanderings

Treasure: None, but may know locations of any riches proximate to area of encounter

Enemies: Several prominent Underworld sorcerers and vampires, wanted for high crimes and treason by grey men of Castle Ziro

Aims: Quests for the semi-legendary Grand Pleasure Dome of the Slug-men

Peculiarities:

Set sail from home city-state in native dimension (one in which intelligent carnivorous ape society has developed many parallels to Earth's ancient Greece), struck by inter-dimensional maelstrom, washed up on shore of Underworld sea, among the bodies of his cohorts and the ruins of his ship

Following period of insane bewilderment and grief-stricken rampaging during which his reputation as an unbelievable badass was cemented, settled into career as hired tough guy for a series of Underworld potentates and Chaos godlings

Recently left employment with the Warlords of the Steam Vents during their dispute with the Church of the Fire Fluke and carries a sizable severance package in gems

Has acquired moderately inaccurate map of the Underworld with route plotted for possible location of of the Grand Pleasure Dome, indicates several extremely dangerous obstacles in his path ahead

Has no idea that the "overworld" exists, it just hasn't come up in his dealings with Underworlders

Hair-trigger sense of personal honor, never misses a slight, never lets a challenge go unanswered

Would love to perform one of the epic poems of his culture to any who might indulge him: its 4 hours of rhythmic fist-pounding and chanting in High Apish

Treasure: Ape-bronze weapons and armor, while unusable by human-size creatures, can be reforged into superior arms and armor (equivalent to enchanted items), a fortune in gems

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Number Appearing: 2-12Size: Average in the human rangeArmor: Thick fur as leatherResilience: As experienced human warriorIntelligence: It's hard to tell because they're so insaneCommunication: Spew obscenities in Underworld common and gibber a good dealDisposition: Frantic jollinessViolence: Powerful bite, clawsEnemies: Locked in Darwinian struggle with giant spidersAims: Fulfilling primal urgesPeculiarities:

The only special creation of The God that Lives on the Ceiling, who then pronounced their existence an embarrassment and abandoned them to the Underworld

Following this heartless abandonment, the ceiling folk underwent a permanent, hereditary psychotic break

Blessed/cursed by their creator with inverse gravity, they are strong enough to spring from the ceiling to the floor, seize prey and "fall" back up to their domain

Feed upon a wide variety of dungeon vermin, floors of occupied territories frequently littered with rat bones and empty carapaces of giant centipedes

Enemies: As designated by their creator, lord, and master, Chaos godling Shaggath-Ka

Aims: Only following orders

Peculiarities:

Continuous waves of reinforcements provided by the hideous, blood-guzzling, self-fertilizing Drone-Wives of Shaggath-Ka, who produce millions of eggs at a go, deposit them in the Worm Pits where a terrible cannibalistic struggle ensues, only 1d6 hundreds of adult worm troopers emerge per batch

Unshakable morale, once set to a task by their master or his high priests, worm troopers sacrifice their lives toward these ends without the slightest hesitation

Subjected to thorough training in battle tactics under tutelage of the priesthood, but must constantly combat powerful innate urge to commit all available forces in single all-out frontal assault

Encysted in stasis-goo then shipped to secret storage chambers in numerous strategic locations around the Underworld, magically activated as needed by Shaggath-Ka or his priesthood

Friday, November 7, 2014

Number Appearing: 1-4Size: 14-18 feet longArmor: Thick hide equivalent to chain mail, parry incoming attacks with dynamic mandibular actionResilience: As five human warriorsIntelligence: Just enough to receive and carry out simple orders ("Kill them! Kill them ALLLL!!!")Communication: Answer yes or no questions with emphatic head movementsDisposition: They like battle, that much is for certain, otherwise inscrutibleViolence: Scimitar-like mandibles expertly employed to take human foes apart at the seams, increased chance of dismembermentEnemies: Any who would oppose their master, Shaggath-KaAims: Kill for the glory of their creatorPeculiarities:

Special creation of Chaos godling Shaggath-Ka (the Worm Sultan) as anti-personnel battle worms for long-prophesied war with humanity, deployed as elite to bolster standard worm troopers in internecine struggles with fellow godlings

Attend high priests of The Worm Sultan as personal guard

Bloodhound-like tracking ability

If given sufficient room to mount charge, able to bowl over human-size troops like stampeding bull

Never quit, never surrender, totally lacking any interest in saving own skin, utterly devoted to their deity and its flock

Treasure: None of their own but often accompany members of the priesthood loaded with cash and prizes

Exhale foul black smoke, clouds of noxious smog eddy around large work forces

Originally created as servitor race by a godling called Stone Mother, since destroyed under mysterious circumstances

Find fulfillment in performance of menial tasks, work tirelessly, no sleep or rest requirement as long as generous payment in digestible fuel holds out, immediately walk off the job if for any reason payment is withheld or delayed, rumored to have raised a pyramid in a fortnight

Immune to fear of any kind, view combat as enjoyable sporting event

If fuel supply exhausted, slip into torpid state, requiring magical re-ignition of internal furnace, in the majority of encounters with stone boys they will be found frozen in statue-like condition

Scattered after disappearance of Stone Mother, many boys fell into unsavory Underworld service industries, staffing various resorts, tourists attractions, saloons and eateries, or providing security to Underworld potentates

Can be bribed with large amounts of fossil fuels

If they ever find out who destroyed the Stone Mother (or, alternately, can be convinced by a plausible enough story), their furnaces will burn with an unprecedented heat of rage, blue flames streaming from their mouths, and they will not stop until those responsible are smashed

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Number Appearing: 10-100 (per hive)Size: 6" tallArmor: Hover, dart about at blinding speedResilience: As delicate as can beIntelligence: Give the appearance of higher level of intelligence than they actually possessCommunication: Buzzing speech seems extremely complex and nuanced but they really don't have much of substance to sayDisposition: Hateful, only laugh when they come across trapped victims and oh what a terrible sound it isViolence: Tiny claws, bite w/relatively weak paralytic saliva, by tiny weaponEnemies: Bothersome dungeon residents and intrudersAims: Dungeon fairy supremacist ideology hard-wired into psychology, unshakably bigoted against everyone elsePeculiarities:

Use inherent magical powers to create and maintain fiendish traps and pitfalls from which they harvest their prey, secretly following maintenance teams of dungeon fairies around will reveal location of most traps, magical gas traps a favorite, locations marked by tiny sigils

Hives found in dark corners, suspended among stalactites, hanging beneath giant mushroom caps, built onto the shells of giant dungeon snails with whom they share a symbiotic understanding

Ferocious if driven from hive, attack as swarm, attempt to paralyze prey with bites

Sizable swarm able to strip a human-sized victim of flesh in less than one minute, bones then processed with saliva into raw materials for hive-building, feeding triggers nearly immediate population explosion, each individual lays single egg, one day later freshly-hatched brood flies forth to seek site for new hive

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Number Appearing: UniqueSize: Approximately 20ft. tallArmor: Hide like elephant leather, only damaged by enchanted weapons, immune to most spells (anti-magic miasma)Resilience: Able to absorb as much damage as any 3 giants, regeneratesIntelligence: A genius when it comes to fighting, less so as regards all other subjectsCommunication: Emits piercing war-cry only but in many subtle nuancesDisposition: Grim determinationViolence: Enchanted Glaive of Dismemberment able to slice a dragon in half in a single blow, noted for sending limbs flying hither and yon, also lashes out with mighty tentacles if faced with multiple foesEnemies: Chaos godlings of the UnderworldAims: Eradicate any who might threaten the interests of the Science Fungoid civilizationPeculiarities:

Emits magic-dampening miasma, enveloping Ghulukuros in a 120' diameter cloud that makes breathing difficult, dulls the senses, fogs the mind and causes an irresistible fear in all but the most valiant lesser beings, spells cannot be cast within cloud

Not actually a god, just has good PR

One of the earliest and most successful subjects of the Science Fungoids' selective breeding program, created in response to perpetual threat of super-potent Chaos godlings

Lies inert in nutritive loam-filled sarcophagus, attended by pseudo-priesthood of bio-technicians, jostled back into active duty at need via enormous device similar to defibrillator

Regeneration defies most conventional (and outré) violence, but vulnerable to powerful digestive enzymes such as those produced by black puddings and other oozes, a closely guarded secret

Treasure: The Glaive of Dismemberment, laden with eldritch martial energies, while unusable by human size creatures, could capture a fortune from the right giant-size buyer

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Number Appearing: Small research groups: 2-8, population centers: 40-400Size: 3-4 feet tallArmor: Spongy exterior equivalent to leatherResilience: As 3 human warriors, tenacious regeneration, extremely difficult to destroy permanently, resistant to magicIntelligence: Human average but face intellectual challenges with inhuman determination unhampered by ethical considerations of any kindCommunication: Tiny voices like bursting bubbles, release clouds of interpreter spores that if inhaled allow permanent comprehensionDisposition: Charming, friendly, generous, overflow with manic joy, emit near-constant peals of high-pitched titteringViolence: Generally left to humanoid bodyguards, otherwise by weaponEnemies: Official policy of neutrality, big secret plans for everyoneAims: Current overriding concern: learning everything there is to know about human(oid) physiology/psychology with a special emphasis on surface beingsPeculiarities:

Formerly referred to themselves as Wise Gardening Fungoids, spent all energies on creating new and interesting fungal topiary until contact with the blind antler men and their space-born learning triggered a cultural revolution. Unlike the indifferent antler men, the Fungoids set themselves to mastery of the cosmos.

Specialize in the development and propagation of a wide variety of medicinal, psychoactive, mutagenic, and frequently lethal fungal strains and eagerly test these innovations on human subjects willing to sign a waiver. Additional tests conducted on captive clone populations well out of public view.

Often freely distribute weaponized puffballs (see below) and spore-laden caps that are known to produce currently unpredictable mutations to adventurers for further field testing if recipient agrees to record effects and return with data

Underworld ecology now considered well-understood, interest has moved on to the surface world, specifically humanity, marked by the recent opening of the Fungoid Institute of Human Sciences, a magnificent facility on the shores of the Black Ooze River

Unimpressed with Chaos godlings as a rule, but deal prudently with these beings and their minions

Boast the Underworld's only true air force (usable in chambers of sufficient size), composed of living dirigibles, gas bag organisms manipulated and permanently enslaved by allied sorcerers

Treasure: Generally carry enough ready cash in a wide variety of Underworld currencies to grease the wheels of diplomacy, sacks of experimental fungi as noted above

Sample Experimental Fungi (for OD&D/Swords & Wizardry/that kind of thing):
The (exceedingly grim) anti-personnel puffball grenade
These roughly fist size fungal spheroids burst when met with any sufficient force (such as hitting the ground after a toss) and project a cloud of spores in a 10' radius. Human or human-like creatures exposed to this cloud must make a saving throw or roll 1d6. On a roll 1-4, consult the random result table below. On a roll of 5-6 the victim swells into a giant puffball and explodes the next round, throwing off a 20' cloud of spores. Any within this radius must roll for their lives as above.
Random result table
d4
1. Sudden fungal bloom from within body (perish with maximum unpleasantness in 2 rounds unless magically cured)
2. Funganthropy: victim's form copied (very imperfectly) and replaced by fungal tissue, transformation complete in 1 turn, insane rampage of random violence commences shortly thereafter, hit points doubled due to fungal resilience
3. Victim rooted to the spot by fungal tendrils from legs, fuse completely into immobile stalk in 1 turn, head broadens into cap shape, its all over
4. Puffball fungi begin to grow at alarming rate from every inch of victim's skin, dexterity compromised by -1d6, charisma rendered null and void. Can be carefully shaved off to relatively decent effect, but process must be performed at least thrice daily to mitigate otherwise appalling hideousness and clear and present danger to companions.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Number Appearing: They hunt aloneSize: Roughly human sizeArmor: Partially composed of space fungus, easy to strike, difficult to harmResilience: As per 4 human warriors, physical weapons inflict only half normal damageIntelligence: Insect-likeCommunication: None as such, but uncanny mimicry ability, can reproduce speech patterns of any previously digested intelligenceDisposition: Cosmic/stupid indifference to everything but the next mealViolence: Jams hollow proboscis into skull/brain of victim, sucks it out with startling speed, rends w/claws as necessaryEnemies: None as such, but awfully hungry most of the timeAims: They are hungry, I tell you!Peculiarities:

Devolved strain of blind antler men never able to adapt to digestion of earthly materials, developed over time into super-specialized soul-eaters, intellect frittered away with disuse until they became at last semi-immortal, single-minded engines of destruction

Following consumption of living sentience, psychephage forever able to conjure up personality and project convincing illusion of victim but speech is always a hash of non sequiturs and meaningless soundbites

Smells intellect and always stalks/attacks the brainiest people first, if it consumes a brain containing memorized spells, these are instantly and simultaneously cast, targeting any nearby at random

Sucks out the brains, extracts that certain special something (soul, psyche, whatever), sneezes the remaining tissues out in non-damaging but gratuitous and super-revolting blast

Do not reproduce, only a handful remain

Treasure: Eschews the material, but perfect copies of 2d12 personalities from across time and space encoded into cellular matrix in abdominal bladder, sorcerers already at work on magical means of information extraction, will pay heavy gp for undamaged specimen

- Communicates via humpback whale-like songs when necessary, mostly sings to express itself as artistic exploration of its nature and place in the cosmos, individuals in constant competition for place in the Plain Strider Top Ten

- Quickly stomp out any non-Striders who attempt one of their songs

Treasure: Beaks sought after by Underworld sentients as raw material for building projects/giant-size armor, sometimes fashioned into the hulls of vessels meant to navigate the Black Ooze River

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Number Appearing: Singly, in small groups, teeming in their thousandsSize: Taller than the average humanArmor: Ornate exoskeletal Underworld survival suits, crafted of manipulated biological tissuesResilience: As per tough, experienced human warrior plus slow regenerationIntelligence: Smarter than humans, cosmic awarenessCommunication: Unique language characterized by monotone shouting, able to master most spoken languages after extended, highly irritating period of very loud monotone echolaliaDisposition: Aloof, emotionless, eminently logical, frequently distracted by input from numerous unknown sensesViolence: By weapon (enchanted self-heating swords for exterminating trolls, exploding bolas, bio-drones), spellsEnemies: Chaos godlings of the Underworld and their humanoid cultists, untrustworthy interlopers, trolls (an embarrassing degenerate sub-species)Aims: Accumulation of available knowledge of the cosmos ascertained via array of sensillae (ever-changing rack of "antlers") from comfort of home, hoarding thereof without much in the way of practical applicationPeculiarities:- Slip into inert state of deep observation, sometimes in mid-sentence, when alerted to wide variety of stimulae by sensory array
- Animal/fungus hybrid alien to the Underworld, delivered as hibernating spores on great meteorite that crashed through the surface into their home cavern, now a bewildering metropolis featuring vast group meditation spaces full of motionless antler men standing around perceiving things
- Able to cast limited selection of spells by direct mental manipulation of ambient Chaos in the Underworld with none of the hassle of verbal, gestural, or material components
- Cosmic awareness enhanced by senses known and unknown, consider themselves equal to Chaos godlings in wisdom and stature but require no unseemly worship as do the emotionally starved and stunted godlings
- Bio-technological devices further enhance their capacity to probe the unknown
- Field armies only occasionally but have never lost a battle
- View surface people as menaces due to ability to "taste" greed, hate, irrational fear and other universal human characteristics, all of which make them want to vomitTreasure: Invaluable Underworld knowledge, fortunes in natural resources, precious metals, gems and crystals (all used for scientific/aesthetic purposes only), weird manufactured goods of dubious use to lesser beings

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Resilience: Can withstand physical damage as a human head on wee limbs

Intelligence: Exceptionally brainy

Communication: Speak several languages with high-pitched parody of human speech, mutter to one another in personal language as well as shared telepathic link

Disposition: Mood swings as typical in megalomaniacs

Violence: Dagger, spells, bites like hell

Enemies: Fools who dare interfere with their diabolical schemes

Aims: Identical to immediate ancestor only even crazier/more ambitious

Peculiarities:

- Heinous result of over-indulgence in the black arts, a lifetime of questionable choices/practices, triggered by particularly risky eldritch activity (contacting outer being, casting spells requiring inhuman faculties, etc) whereupon the sorcerer's body suddenly explodes leaving only the head behind which then erupts from within spewing out larval wizard heads, each growing into nearly identical copies (excepting tiny limbs, rows of fangs, and extended jaw) of the original

- Operate independently but also able to form single super intelligence at need

- Arcane abilities increase in power in direct proportion to the number of heads in proximity (single head equal to fledgling wizard, twelve heads as per arch-mage)

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Number appearing: One or swarm of larvaeSize: 25' including tailArmor: Skin like elephant leather, no known vital organ, penetration of eye membranes triggers explosionResilience: Tough as a hill giantIntelligence: Like a steel trapCommunication: TelepathicDisposition: Inscrutable in general, attacks, seemingly without malice, anything penetrating its personal spaceViolence: Lethal red eye-beam, tail lash, curb stompEnemies: Feared and avoided by sensible Underworld sentients as an unpredictable menaceAims: Driven by unfathomable instinct to create new pathways and chambers in the Underworld using eye-beams, guided by inhuman aesthetic sensibilityPeculiarities:
-Eye-beams:
Red: death energies damaging to all living tissues
Green: carves tunnels through the underworld like hot knife through butter
Yellow: probes exposed minds for obscure tidbits of information desirable only to Tyrannoclops
-feeds upon subterranean energies, absorbed through skin
-reproduction ensues upon death, 2d12 larvae rapidly take shape in body cavity, wriggle horribly beneath the skin before erupting forth, weak eye-beams coming on line as they stagger off towards shelter, make war upon one another until only the toughest remains, grows to full size in one week, embarks upon Underworld expansion careerTreasure: keeps no hoard but following a tunneling T-clops may lead to fortunes in gemstones (immune to yellow eye-beams) or reveal previously inaccessible vaults of the Extinct Ones